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Twin sons to run in Waterfront Marathon for dad paralyzed by attack in Thailand

Toronto aid worker Chris Channon was left an “incomplete” quadriplegic in a vicious mugging. But on Sunday he’ll be waiting at the finish line with a smile and hopes to run again someday.

Toronto humanitarian worker Chris Channon was joined by his sons during his stay in a Bangkok hospital after he was mugged and left for dead on a beach in Koh Lipe in August. The 22-year-old twins, Andrew, left, and Matthew, will run the Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon this Sunday as inspiration for their dad, who is working hard at walking again.
(Channon family)

Toronto humanitarian aid worker Chris Channon spent three years working in refugee camps in Africa before he was attacked and left an "incomplete" quadriplegic in Thailand last month. (Chris Channon)

Toronto father of three Chris Channon was an adventurer and humanitarian aid worker before an attack in Thailand left him paralyzed last month. (Channon family)

A quadriplegic with a horror story and a big heart will be seen smiling from a wheelchair near the finish line of Sunday’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

It will be Chris Channon’s first venture outside hospital grounds since he returned to Toronto last month, paralyzed after being mugged and left for dead on a beach in Thailand.

His 22-year-old twin sons, Andrew and Matthew, are running the half-marathon because their dad can’t.

They want to motivate him to keep battling through his recovery, because they believe one day he will walk again.

From his hospital bed on Saturday, Channon, 50, told the Star he would be “beaming from the side lines.”

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“I’ll be proud about being out and watching my boys, and it will be encouraging to me because I want to run again,” he said.

Channon, a humanitarian aid worker, was hit in the back of the neck, likely with a steel pipe, as he was wandering along a beachfront trail in Koh Lipe on the evening of Aug. 14.

He regained consciousness as he was being dragged to a dark, isolated part of the beach by his attacker.

His feeble cries for help went unanswered by nearby beach revelers. Channon spent an entire night lying on the sand, unable to move, while mosquitoes and fire ants gnawed his flesh and stray dogs licked his face.

The attack left the father of three an “incomplete” quadriplegic, which means it’s possible that, through intense rehabilitation, he could regain movement.

Channon has been confined to the Toronto Rehabilitation Centre since he returned to Canada on Sept. 8. But on Sunday, he plans to head down to the finish line of the waterfront marathon in his powered wheelchair to cheer his sons on as they complete the race.

In 2003, Channon was the one crossing that same finish line. He’s long had an active lifestyle that included long-distance running, diving and mountain climbing.

The former construction worker from Whitby dropped his tools and sold his house to become a full-time humanitarian worker after visiting Liberia in 2011.

He spent three years working in refugee camps in Africa, and helped to build a hospital in Nigeria and a school in Liberia.

Between February and July this year, he was in the Philippines doing disaster relief work following Typhoon Haiyan. In August, we was in Thailand while negotiating a contract to be a project manager at a refugee camp in the Middle East.

He arrived in Koh Lipe on Aug. 9.

He recalls being accosted that night by a local man he now believes was acting as a distraction. As he was trying to push the man away, everything went blank.

Channon was struck on the back of the neck with such force, it shattered his C4 vertebra and compressed his C5 into his C6.

“I awoke in a dark secluded beach area. I could not move from my neck down. I was alone, confused and very scared,” he told the Star. He recalls that he was lying about two metres from the water’s edge, afraid the tide would come in and drown him.

“There were a lot of mosquitoes and fire ants and crabs, and I started getting eaten alive. At first it was excruciating, but then everything just got numb.”

At early dawn, he heard footsteps and started calling for help. Four people ignored his cries; one stranger even threw a bottle of water at him.

“My face was swollen and eaten to the point that people thought I had some disease or something,” he said.

Finally, a couple from New Zealand came to his aid.

When police arrived they loaded Channon onto a piece of plywood, balanced on the sidecar of a motorcycle, and drove him to a nearby clinic.

Because his injuries were so severe, he was then taken via speedboat to the nearest hospital on the mainland. He passed out twice from pain and recalls rolling off his board onto the floor of the boat.

He was transferred several times to different hospitals, and received no pain relief until about 36 hours after the attack.

Doctors at a hospital in Hat Yai did a CT scan and an MRI and told him that unless he underwent emergency surgery, he would never walk again. After the surgery, Channon was transferred to a hospital in Bangkok.

His sons flew in from Canada and stayed with him until he was stable enough to make the 26-hour flight home.

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